In my case I have a multi-configuration project that needs to invoke a rake task on windows, mac, and linux environments. The job on the windows node fails to find 'rake.bat'. It is in the windows system PATH and I can run it from the local machine cmd prompt.

I believe this would work if I could select "Rake" from the list of tool locations on the Node Configuration page for my windows slave. Installing the rake plugin does not add Rake to the list of node tool installations.

The full error is:

[windows] $ rake.bat build:release
The system cannot find the file specified
FATAL: rake execution failed
java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "rake.bat" (in directory "C:\jenkins\workspace\project\label\windows"): CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source)
at hudson.Proc$LocalProc.<init>(Proc.java:244)
at hudson.Proc$LocalProc.<init>(Proc.java:216)
at hudson.Launcher$LocalLauncher.launch(Launcher.java:698)
at hudson.Launcher$ProcStarter.start(Launcher.java:329)
at hudson.Launcher$RemoteLaunchCallable.call(Launcher.java:923)
at hudson.Launcher$RemoteLaunchCallable.call(Launcher.java:890)
at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:118)
at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:48)
at hudson.remoting.Request$2.run(Request.java:287)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.create(Native Method)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(Unknown Source)
... 16 more
Build step 'Invoke Rake' marked build as failure
Recording test results
Notifying upstream projects of job completion
Finished: FAILURE